Dog attacked again, advice

[Heatherplant]

I've got a boxer bitch (spayed) and she's been with me since being a pup. Sadly around two years ago she was attacked while being walked, the offending dog wasn't on a lead so as I pulled her away the other dog just kept coming at her. Since then she's not been keen on other dogs but I've always managed her behavior, walked her on a harness/lead and she is muzzled. It has only gone and happened again, another dog not on a lead with no owner in sight came and bit her repeatedly and circled us baring its teeth. Needless to say when she was walked after this latest incident passing another dog is stressful as she will bark and jump about to make her presence known. Any positive stories of putting a stop to this kind of aggressive behavior? How did you manage it? She is otherwise lovely and it just seems so unfair as she wouldn't even have this problem if she'd never been attacked.

[AcidifiedDog]

Hi, we've had this problem around where we live. Our dog was terrible with other dogs as he's now been attacked 6 times by dogs around here with absolute morons for owners. They think because their dog is small that they don't need to bother training it. They should be glad we've got a Halti for our dog or there would've been a few less dogs around here.

As for solutions, after consulting a trainer we worked with rewarding our dog for a calm response when passing other dogs. Get something they really love (hot dogs in our case) to really grab their attention away from the oncoming dog. Let them see the other dog, say their name and reward for looking at you instead of the other dog. This will take time! You have to act quickly before your dog starts showing stress signals. You should be able to build up to a point where your dog is a lot calmer. I never thought I'd get to a point with our dog where I didn't dread every single walk with the judgmental looks for having the mad growling barking dog. We have good days and bad days but the good well outweigh the bad days now.

Apologies for the essay and good luck!!

[Heatherplant]

Many thanks, that sounds like a plan I'll give it a go.